Health Humanities 2018 | Humanities Lab

Is health your accomplishment?

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Is disease your responsibility?

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And for that matter, what is health? How do we know it when we have it?

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Can you be healthy in mind, but not in body or vice versa?

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How does your community or your socio-economic status affect your health?

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What is wellbeing and how is it shaped by individual and collective histories and identities?

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The academic field of health humanities poses questions like these (left) in order to engage critically with conceptualizations of health, disease, and medicine.

Such questions require creative and interdisciplinary approaches to address them adequately. This course introduces students to a variety of disciplinary theoretical methodological tools for studying health, medicine, and healthcare by utilizing case studies, guest experts, and group work. Students will apply these methodologies as they design interdisciplinary collaborative group projects that engage and critique contemporary questions and critical issues pertaining to health, medicine, and wellbeing.

Course Learning Outcomes

Compare different understandings of health, disease, wellbeing, and medicine.
Explain and critique the study of health and medicine.
Outline foundational questions in the humanistic study of health, healthcare, and medicine.
Identify contemporary issues in health research and determine the appropriate research methods for addressing and understanding these issues.
Design a collaborative research project that investigates health, medicine, and/or wellbeing through the applied use of humanistic methodologies and theoretical tools.